- Ásatrú –

Norse Religious Traditionalism // - -

Por (by): Godhi Medhal Mikit Stór-ljon Oddhinsson

(Clergy In Trainning) Octavio Augusto Okimoto Alves de Carvalho
Ásatrú Vanatrú – Forn Sed Brazil
Norse Religious Traditionalism

20 – August – 2002 C.E.

English Grammar Correction:

Githya Kreimhild A. Steinberg
New York Metropolitan Asatru Society – USA Samfundnet Asatru Forna Seden

Introduction to Ásatrú

Ásatrú is a modern name in an old language of our old religion. It means "True to the Aesir" in Old Norse. The origins of our religion come from the Stone Age, yet it remains virtually unchanged from its time. Being an living faith, it adapted itself to the needs of each age to better fit to the spiritual needs of the people of such times until the Viking Age, without losing the link with its ancient roots in an state of equilibrium. In practice, however, Ásatrú is not about only the Aesir, but the Vanir and also, some deities of Jotnar kind. This modern name was the one given to the Icelanders when they sought legal recognition in 1972. Godhi (priest, chieftain) and Skald (a poet) known as Alhesargodhi Sveinbjorn Betteinsson led the Asatruarmenn, Iceland’s first legally recognised Heathen group in nearly a millenuim, at the time of the official recognition by the Icelandic Parliament (Althing) as Ásatrú as a true and valid religion. "Trú" also means Fidelity, Faith or Trust.

History

Ásatrú was followed by several peoples of Northern Europe. The Scandinavians (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Scandinavian people), Frisians, Hungarians, Anglo-Saxons, The Teutons (predecessors of the German peoples), the ancestors of the Dutch, the Goths (Visigoths, Ostrogoths, etc), the Slavonians, Longabards and the Russians. Although there have been false claims without any academic proof or archaeological evidence of familiar traditions and inninterrupted lineage, the religion was obliterated by a genocidal and violent campaign by Roman Catholic Christianity. (See more details in the section "A Short History of Paganism" on this same website). The elder ancient Norsemen were strong, but even if they desperately tried to preserve their culture, they were not bent on converting others, and the new religion was. Catholic social and economic pressures coupled with a campaign of genocide drove the old ways underground. Such was the fate of this religion. The doom of Ásatrú began even before at the late sixth century when a small group of missionaries crossed the channel of the great continent into the British Isles to bring the Christian faith into Kent.

 

Other Christian teachers were already working in the west of Britain. Before long, the temples of the Heathen gods were replaced by little churches of wood, brick and stone, and carved crosses arose everywhere in honour of the Christian god. By 731 C.E., a brilliant Christian scholar in the new monastery of Jarrow in northern England, the man we know as the Bede the Venerable, set out to write a book surveying the growth of the new faith from one end of England to the other. Though the Heathen religion in Britain was not yet dead, its days were numbered. On the continent, most of the Germanic peoples had already rejected (or converted by swordpoint with obvious death threats to themselves and their families from this "religion of love") the old gods, with a few exceptions like the Saxons, the Frisians, and the Danes. Things became worse by the tenth and eleven centuries when the people of Norway were converted by those doughty Christian kings, Olaf Tryggvarsson and Olaf The Holy. These two waged unceasing battle against the heathen gods, smashing their idols, burning their temples, either driving out their followers or putting them to a painful death in the name of Christ.

Some of those driven away settled in Iceland, where there were no kings and no persecution. But even in Iceland, the fires of heathenism were dying down. In the year 1000 C.E., the Icelandic Assembly (Althing), under presure from several of the Christian kings of Scandinavia through threats of war and denial of trade, they made Christianity into the oficial religion of Iceland, but in a afforded a far higher degree of religious tolerance towards the old religion, where the scriptures and images was not smashed and destroyed, and worship was tolerated in private. Showing treachery and disdain towards the Old Faith, Denmark had also forgotten its roots, and in 1015 C.E., when Canute the Dane conquered England, he was fully prepared to become a pillar of the Church. The Swedes were the most stubborn in their steadfast faith to the Heathen religion, but by 1164, a Christian bishop ruled in Uppsala, the old stronghold of Odin and Freyr, and destroyed the Old Uppsala temple building an Christian Church on the place where the temple once stood. A cursed monument still seen nowadays in remembrance to the genocide wrought upon all of our predecessors. As an ethno-cultural religion, it was a part of the culture, and also, of the soul of the Northern European folks, and it never really died. It survived in the Goths, Anglo Saxon communities in a synthesis of Christianity and Heathenism called Catholic Arianism, and even the Christian Icelanders still believed and respected the spirits of the land known as the "landvaetter". However such religion was persecuted and completely slaughtered by the church’s agents as a heretical belief and this signalled the end of Aesir worship in Northern Europe.

However, the Christian tyrrany did not endure forever. The Dark Ages, when Christianity held total political dominance, are long over, and with the Renaissance Age to Modern Age, humankind again saw a new light of freedom. The most important tribute to the end of such darkness was when the last Christian king of France was decaptated, and someone yelled at the multitude: "Jacques de Molay- Your blood is avenged!!!"

(The French Christian Crown was one of the worst enemies of Heathenism and Viking Civilization.)

During the early part of the 20th Century, The National Socialist Party in Germany under Adolf Hitler Christian Leadership and with the support of the Roman Catholic Pope, attempted to pervert Asatru by grafting parts of the religious symbols onto the Nazi’s racist beliefs. This blasphemy died by the end of World War II, although some neo-Nazi groups are now attempting to continue the practice.
This activity is in no way related to the restoration of Asatru as the Aesir Worship in its former Glory!

Every study of runology done in Germany in XIX and XX century was tainted by non traditional elements, mixed with Christian racist extremism and theosophical elements resulting in a total non-traditional nazi Germanic esotericism by individuals such as Guido Von List.

And as always, Iceland held a vital role in Asatru restoration. They preserved our lore and legends from the harmful Christian hands of inquisition and in 1972, the Priest (Godhi) and Poet (Skald) Sveinbjorn Betteinsson, after great political pressure on Iceland Parliament (Thing), accomplished legal recogntion of the Pre-Christian Norse Religious Traditionalism as a valid religion and widely known today as Ásatrú . That means Trust, Faith or Loyalty to the Gods!

 

Religion Nature and Beliefs –

Ásatrú is an Ethno-Cultural religion.

Ethno Cultural religions are the most sublime way of expressing the cosmology, way to view the universe, spirituality and culture of a people. The culture is the most important element of a people or nation and it is indeed the folk soul of this nation. Other examples of Ethno Cultural Religions are Hinduism, Druidism, Judaism, Taoism, Vodoun, Candomble and Shintoism.

Ásatrú beliefs are polytheistic, zoomorphic, antropormorphic and animist as are the majority of the Indo-European Religions in its original form.

Many people are exposed to the name "Asatru" through role playing games, such as Mage: The Ascension.
Unfortunately, the Asatru of these games bear little resemblance to the real religion.

 

Our Gods – Nossos Deuses

Ásatrú, as a polytheistic religion. Asatruar worship three divine tribes of deities.

The Aesir: These are the Gods of the tribe or clan, representing kingship, order, craft, etc.

The Vanir: These represent both the fertility of the earth and forces of nature.
They are associated with the Aesir but are not a part of it.

The Jotnar: These are actual Gods, but are referred to as giants. They are in a constant state of war with
the Aesir. They represent chaos and destruction. At the battle of Ragnarok, many of the Gods will die. Afterwards, the world will come to an end and be reborn.

Origins: Mankind is literally descended from the Gods. One deity, Rig visited the earth and fathered the human race.

OdreidthR: This is the gift of ecstasy provided to humans by the Gods. It is what separates mankind from other animals,
and is our eternal link with the Gods.

Creation Story: A poem Voluspa (Prophecy of the Seeress) contains an Asatru story of the creation of the universe. Between Muspelheim (The Land of Fire) and Niflheim the Land of Ice was an empty space called Ginnungigap. The fire and ice moved towards each other; when they collided, the universe came into being. Odin, Vili and Ve later created the world from the body of Ymir, a giant that they had slain.

Ásatrú often describes the creation of the universe as a natural and gradual process, not as a result of the caprice of some all powerful deity. Ginnungagap is an absolute voidness that was the Nothing that is All-in-potential, quite similar to the teachings in several other Indo-European religions including Hinduism and Buddhism.

 

Ásatrú Morality –

Life Values: They follow values like the modern construct Nine Noble Virtues, based upon the Havamal: Courage, Truth, Honor, Fidelity, Discipline, Hospitality,
Industriousness, Self-Reliance and Perseverance. The family is greatly valued and honored. They reject any form of
discrimination based on ethnicity, gender, language, nationality, race, sexual orientation, or "other divisive criteria".

Ásatrú in fact don’t have a strictly defined set of laws of conduct as commandment, but rather a loosely defined heroic morality, or "thew". However, We have some elements that would be considered to be virtuous behaviour and would be considered admirable traits by our people. Honour, courage, discipline, and so forth are based in what is a workable reality instead of aderence of a dogma. Loyalty to family, our community and our Gods instead of the threason of syncretism and reason, joy, modesty and compassion.

 

Ásatrú Rites

Their local religious communities are called Kindreds, Hearths, or Garths. Priests are called Gothi; priestesses are Gythia

The Blot: (pronounced "bloats") This is their most common religious ritual; it is a sacrifice to the Gods. In olden days,
as with almost all ancient religions, an animal was consecrated to the deities and then slaughtered. This was not seen
as a bribe or as a method of capturing the power of the dying animal. It is simply the way in which the ancient Norse
shared their bounty with a gift to the Gods. Currently, the animal sacrifice has been replaced by the offer of beer, juice
or mead. Afterwards, those present are either sprinkled with the liquid, or drink it in sequence.

The Sumbel: This is a ritual drinking celebration, in which a horn filled with a drink is passed around the group. Each person delivers a greeting; a toast to the Gods, ancient heroes, or one's ancestors; or a story, song or poem. He or she then drinks from the horn.

Profession or Adoption: This is the act of making a commitment to Asatru to the exclusion of any another religious dogma, by solemnly giving an oath of allegiance and kinship to the Gods of Asgard, the Aesir and Vanir and our people. It is a simple ceremony usually done in the presence of a Gothi or Gythia and the rest of the Kindred, Hearth or Garth. It is taken on an oath ring or some other sacred object.

 

Sources

Asatru – Norse Paganism

By Religious Tolerance – ORG

Gods and Myths of Northern Europe

H.R. Ellis Davidson

Havamal – The Words of the Highest One

The Poetic Eddas

Larrington Translation

Old Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem

An introduction to Asatru *** The Raven Kindred Assc. 11160 Veirs Mill Rd L15-175 Wheaton, MD 20902 USA (301) 593-9316 - lstead@cais.com

Special Thanks to

Elder Heimdallr Thorvinn (Hinn Gamli) and Gydthia Kreimhilde A. Steinberg

 

Heill Alföþr ok Allar Helgar Kindir
Heill Asar ok Vanir
Heill Alfar ok Landvaetter
Heill Sveinbjorñ Betteinsson and Godhi Medhal
Mikit Stór-Ljon Oddhinsson(In Memorian)
Heill öllum Asafolkar í trú ok Siðr

This Page was created in:
25/May/2249 R.E. (Runic Era)

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